Hidden Lands & Inner Space

Here are a couple of maps from the pages of Marvel comics that could be put to good rpg use.

The first is from the pages of Micronauts. It gives me flashbacks to organic chemistry but also provides a basic layout of Homeworld:

This one is of a hidden land of prehistoric holdouts in Antartica: Ka-Zar's Savage Land:

A Bug of a Different Color

Here's another obscure Star Trek species for Starships & Spacemen:

NASAT

Encountered: 2d4 (5d10)
Movement: 90' (30')
Intelligence: Average
Psionic Potential: 4d4, inactive
Hits: 1d8
Armor: -2
Combat Skill: 12
Save: L1
Attacks: 1
Damage: By weapon or 1d4
Morale: 7
XP: 10

Nasat are short humanoids vaguely resembling Terran isopods. They are known to the Federation in the 23rd Century, but are not yet members.

Nasat average 4 ft. tall and have 8 limbs, but typically ambulate bipedally. Either of their upper pairs of limbs may be used as manipulators. Though they have an internal skeleton, they also possess thick plates of carapace that extend down their tails. Their integument is either green, blue, red, brown on yellow.  

These colors divide the Nasat into “shell-groups” which are geographically co-mingled but divide their society in a way analogous to kinship groups in human societies. Nasat have no other concept of kinship. or even pair-bonding. Mating is a casual affair, with no real associated emotion. Children are raised in communal nurseries  and shepherded through adolescence by minimal support from members of their shell-group.  

Nasat are cautious, often to the point of cowardice from the perspective of other species. They make poor fighters, but have a natural aptitude for technology and make excellent technicians and engineers.

Note: Em3Green was a thief and expert lockpicker  who appeared in the animated series episode “The Jihad.” His species was named and further members were introduced in the ebook series Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers .

Warlord Wednesday: Citadel of Fear

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Citadel of Fear"

Warlord #115 (March 1987)

Written by Michael Fleisher; Art by Ron Randall

Synopsis: Crossing the desert on the way to Kaambuka, a merchant caravan is attacked by “the Warlord and his blood-mad horde.” The survivors of the caravan are taken off to the Citadel of Fear. The Citadel’s master is Desaad, chief torturer of Darkseid, who’s indulging his sadism at the expense of the captives. When the technological illusion drops away, the Warlord is revealed to actually be Y’smalla, the former Vashek assassin. She allied herself with Desaad in her quest for vengeance.

Meanwhile, the real Morgan and his companions are returning from the castle of V’Zarr Hagar-Zinn--still without a means to save Jennifer. He’s also not looking forward to facing his wife Tara and telling her he’s now in love with Mariah! Shakira is disgusted with him and rides off on her own.

Mariah and Morgan ride into a town where Morgan is immediately attacked. The two are taken captive and the townsfolk plan to burn Morgan alive! A bystander rushes to a horse to ride to Shamballah and tell Queen Tara.

He arrives just in time to see a person with the appearance of Morgan shift into the form of Desaad and kidnap the Queen. The man doesn’t want to tangle with a sorcerer, but he rides back to the town, arriving in time to save Morgan and Mariah from being burned at the stake. (It’s a good thing Shamballah and this town are so close.)

This helpful fellow leads Morgan and Mariah to the Citadel of Fear where Desaad is already subjecting Tara to his tortures. Morgan may be in love with Mariah (thanks to a magic charm Mariah bought) but he feels honor bound to save Tara. Mariah, for her part, is starting to feel guilty about manipulating him.

Y’smalla warns Desaad that Morgan is coming. The Apokolipsian villain plans a reception for the Warlord. When Morgan arrives, he sees Tara reclining in sybaritic indulgence with wine and two guys. It’s all an illusion courtesy of Darkseid. Morgan wavers for a moment, but then V’Zarr Hagar-Zinn’s magic ring kicks in:

Desaad knows the jig is up. He tries to blast Morgan but hits Mariah instead. Morgan returns fire with his pistol, destroying some of Desaad’s machinery. The torturer decides his work here is done and makes his escape. Desaad’s device is falling apart--and both Tara and Mariah are in harm’s way! Who will Morgan choose?

Morgan runs for Mariah, who suddenly has an attack of conscience. She throws the love charm in a nearby fire. She tells Morgan to save Tara. With the charm destroyed, Morgan makes an about face and runs to save his wife. A certain black cat bounds in and transforms into Shakira. She helps Mariah get to safety.

Our heroes are all safe, and Morgan and Tara are reunited. And Mariah:

Desaad leaves Skartaris, his mission to destroy the legend of the Warlord far from a complete success but not a total failure, either. He’s also left Y’smalla behind with tools to cause chaos as a parting shot.

Things to Notice:

• This issue is a Legends crossover.
• Morgan calls his beloved Mariah "youngster," too. That's even more odd than him calling Shakira that.
• It's strange that the loyal Shamballan so pivotal to this story goes unnamed.

Where it Comes From:
The title of this issue is the same as a 1918 lost world novel by Francis Stevens (Gertrude Barrows Bennett),  but there is no clear link between the two. 

Soldiers for Salvation

Every adventurer has at least heard of the Hell Syndicate and its infernal bosses, but fewer are aware that the agents of Heaven are also active in the world. Worldwide, they’re a varied lot--more variable even than the differing versions of the Supreme Being espoused by world religions and encountered by planar travelers--but they have similar aims: They make sure the multiverse functions as it should and they motivate humans to confront the forces of evil.

The followers of the Good Book call these beings “angels.” In the Astral and beyond they can be powerful and frightening, bigger and stronger than many earthly eikones. Their forms are too big and strange for the Material Plane, but in the higher realms they're composed of  a tumult of wings and heads of animals or geometric solids and fire. Always fire.

On earth, they're are smaller and more mundane. A string of soup kitchens and homeless shelters across the Strange New World are operated by angels in human guise or their agents. From the down-and-outs, addicts, and alcoholics that take advantage of their services, the angels recruit soldiers. The most trusted of these they grant minor miraculous powers, making them essentially members of the Gifted. Others are recruited via traveling revivals or mysteriously short-lived radio evangelist shows. These folk drawn from among the working poor, the elderly, and the outcasts of society become secret members of the Army of Salvation.They wait quietly for the time when they will be called upon to perform some task for the agents of God.

Some angels on Earth are sent on missions by their superiors to right various mundane wrongs they encounter--not by direct action as much as by encouraging humans to do so. These angels seldom appear in any way angelic: They mostly look like traveling salesmen, regular clerks or the like. They rarely manifest any supernatural powers--though they are able to travel from place to place instantaneously and have the uncanny knack of avoiding serious physical harm. Other powers are available to them, but these must be cleared with their superiors and are only sanctioned in the direst need.

Ghosts of the First Ones

Discoveries since the the advent of the space age have confirmed occult theories and assertions of the Book of Dzyan that humanity is not the first intelligence to arise on the earth. Astral projection has allowed a glimpse of the beings that inhabited earth in the distance past. The oldest of these was a protoplasmic race made of lighter elements than current physical matter--indeed, they were of a density we would currently term “etheric.” They inhabited a continent only slightly denser than themselves, long ago sublimated into the Astral, but then located at what is now the North Pole. For this reason, these beings have been dubbed “Polarians.”

Psychic impressions indicate the Polarians were alien in many respects. They do not appear to have possessed consciousness in the manner of humans and were perhaps part of a group intelligence. They weren't users of tools in the usual sense: they made what they need from their own substance. Polarian bodies possessed no organs and they reproduced asexually via binary fission.

Polarians are long extinct, but their tenuous ghosts are sometimes encountered, particular in the atmospheres of the gaseous outer planets, blown there by the solar winds.

POLARIAN GHOST
# Enc.:1 (1d4)  Movement:180’ (60’)  Armor Class: 0 (or 8)  Hit Dice: 8  Attacks:1  Damage: 1d6, see below  Save: M8.
These remnants of the Polarian race are ethereal and incapable of physical harm or being harmed by physical creatures. However, their presence is unnerving and may cause fear as per spell. Pyschic beings are particularly susceptible to their alien intellects and save at a -2. They can be harmed by supernatural abilities which effect ethereal creatures or by other ethereal being. They may strike ethereal creatures with pseudopods for 1d6 damage. On a successful hit they can envelope a foe if they wish, provided their man-size or smaller. To ethereal creatures this does a 2 points of damage per round. Their ability to damage etheric beings also allows them to disrupt psychic helms, effecting navigation in unpredictable ways.

Some Images from Talislantan Space

Well, not really, but they work reasonably we for it:

Chana warrior.

Jaka manhunter.

Mondre Khan.

Sarista.

Talislantan Space: Cymrilians

The planet Cymril lies at the center of the Seven Worlds Alliance. Its capital and only city--the crystalline megalopolis Cymril City (or just “Cymril”)--is the de facto capital of the Alliance and the nexus of trading routes, as well. Beyond the city, Cymril is only sparsely populated wilderness, dotted with small settlements.

Cymrilians are a green-skinned humanoid species known for their powerful psi abilities. Not all Cymrilians possess these abilities, but psi training and experimentation are central to Cymrilian culture, and the most powerful psionics form the planet's ruling elite. They have even developed technological means of enhancing their mental powers. All children of Cymrilian society are tested at a young age for psi abilities and the most promising are sent to various academies.

Cymril was founded by a people called the Phandre from the Phaedran Star Empire of old. The Phandre exiles split into three factions/sub-ethnicites that exist to the modern day. The Koresians, currently ascendant in Cymril, are forward-thinking and more interested in being involved in galactic society. The Tanasians are conservatives descended from the former rulers of the Phandre. Until their ouster, Cymril was more a authoritarian and expansionistic state. Tanasians instituted a eugenics program to foster psi potential among their people and were generally opposed to alliances with other (lesser in their view) species.

The third group, the Pharesians, are radicals and rejectionists of Cymril society. Pharesians are distinct from the Koresians and Tanasians, having a darker green skin-tone. They are outcasts, dwelling in the wilderness outside Cymril City or wandering among the inhabited stars as merchants or traders. Their ancestors considered psychologically unsuitable for advanced psi training, Pharesians are barred from the psionic academies by Koresians and Tanasians alike.